Imagine a Howard Hughes biopic starring Jim Carrey, or a James Dean drama with a young Leonardo DiCaprio playing the Hollywood icon. What about Robert Downey Jr. as Edgar Allen Poe? Or how about a trilogy-ending “Star Wars” movie that is not “The Rise of Skywalker”? Film history is jam-packed with auteur passion projects and franchise tentpoles that never got off the ground. When a failed project includes Christopher Nolan directing Carrey, it especially hurts.
Variety runs down some of the greatest movies never made in the list below.